If I personally was given the choice of 3D or Connected for a new TV purchase, I would choose connected. Apparently, I’m not the only one according to some new data from Parks Associates in regards to flat-panel TV purchasing intentions and the features .

Smart is the way to go they say this year as it seems to be outpacing the extra dimensionality of 3D TVs almost 2-to-1 in both installs and intent to purchase. Consumers are savvy and you can’t just foist any old trend on us anymore. I’ve been resistant to the 3D TV push all year because I don’t much care for it myself. I’d rather have an all-in-one unit that can get all my IPTV streams as well as my more traditional TV content and I’m not alone.

I guess that graph really says it all. Smart TVs are the wave of the future and I’ve already gone on record as stating I think that everyone will have a smart or connected TV line this year at CES. I’ve set appointments with many manufacturers and that is exactly the case it seems. Score one for my prognostication skills. Booya!

They focused on middle-class households with annual incomes of $50,000-$75,000 who are seen as responsible for the spike in smart-TV purchase intentions. Twenty percent of middle-income households intend to purchase smart TVs this holiday season, compared to only 12% of households with incomes above $75,000.

If you couple all of that with the drop in standard pay-TV households it added up to a slight decline in global digital set-top box shipments in 2011, according to new data from NPD In-Stat who cited a 1% drop from last year’s numbers.

It seems that all these Smart TVs are jeopardizing some market share for the OTT crowd and really, that’s no surprise. If you’ve got a connected TV, you don’t really need the OTT box, unless you’re looking for a very specific niche site that isn’t available on a certain TV or box. Of course, if you’re a savvy IPTV content producer, you’re going for the shotgun coverage and getting your content everywhere you can.

Time Warner Cable even stated a loss of 128,000 subscribers last quarter.

Meanwhile, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and others reported domestic declines in premium pay-TV channels and transactional video-on-demand, while TWC also posted a drop of 128,000 (largely analog) subscribers in its most recent quarter. That couldn’t possibly have anything to do with their fairly big prices and out-dated packages could it?

Nah, they say it’s because of the flat housing market and economic problems of the world. Which sounds to me like high prices on their part.

If you ask me, with the way that game consoles are encroaching on the OTT and set-top box areas, I don’t see things getting better for any of them.

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